It may not be a pointer to the season ahead and they kept the majority of their stars away, but coaches are adamant the AFLX was a worthwhile exercise.
The Crows, Demons and Lions won the six-team tournaments held in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney respectively.
AFLX joins league's Nines, rugby's Tens and cricket's T20 as the shorter, less populated version of an established sport.
"It definitely does have that Ttwenty20 atmosphere with all the bells and whistles" said Justin Leppitsch, Richmond's coach at Saturday's tournament in Sydney.
While most teams in Sydney concentrated on either quick ball movement or kicking 10-point goals from more than 40m, Richmond didn't stray too far from the template which delivered them premiership success last year.
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"We watched a lot of the other games and noticed it was more just a run-and-gun style of play and we felt like we could always bring our pressure," said Dan Butler, one of just three members of Richmond's 2017 premiership team who played in Sydney.
The shortage of physical contests meant there were few injury worries for the clubs in Sydney, with the Swans Robbie Fox (foot) and the Giants Harry Perryman (back) suffering minor issues.
"You're kind of puffing a fair bit rather than a few heavy knocks, but it was a good thing to try out and I'm sure there's a fututre for it in the game," Butler said.
Players were still coming to grips with the format as the tournament was getting under way.
"To be honest, we were only learning the rules 20 minutes before we went out," Greater Western Sydney speedster Lachie Whitfield said.
Western Bulldogs' head of development Rohan Smith defended his club against suggestions it didn't take the tournament seriously, after their young squad suffered 52 and 66-point defeats in their two games.
"I know we didn't get the results that we wanted out there today but we took the game very seriously," Smith said.
"I know that there's been a lot of negativity about not too many of our stars playing, but we wanted to showcase our future stars."
New Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew believed the AFLX format could be used in another area.
"I think it's a fantastic game to highlight skills and decision-making," Dew said.
"I'd love to see whether they could get it going at the draft combine, and get a really good look at some of the young kids."
